This is event is 4th Annual Local Filmmaker Showcase presented by Independence Public Media Foundation (IPMF), produced and hosted by cinéSPEAK.
EVENT FLOW
DOORS @ 6:30PM — Come early to mix n' mingle and enjoy light refreshments by Philly Hummus Girl
FILMS @ 7:00PM—with Q&A with filmmakers and interactive dialogue with the audience to follow
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TICKETS
GENERAL ADMISSION: FREE! Registration is Requested Seating is first come, first served.
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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Join us for a special community screening as seven Philadelphia filmmakers share films that preserve community histories and draw from the well of collective wisdom. Film themes include radical peacemaking, defiant resting, intergenerational labor organizing, diving into personal archives, and dance as an act of resistance. Each film will explore and reveal the many ways we can heal, be inspired, and mobilize.
About the Films (in order of appearance):
Through Our Hands Working Title
Director Thien Dinh / 2022 - Present / US / English, Tagalog, Cantonese with open captions in English / Excerpt: 20 min
As calls to “Make America Great Again” and “Buy American, Hire American” echo across the country in 2025, promising a return to American goods made by American labor, this film asks: Who is an “American” worker? Through the stories of AAPI worker struggles, this film explores the racial foundations of the American working class, and its relationship to labor, empire, and resistance. Follow the untold stories behind the slogan of Buy American and meet AAPI and immigrant workers fighting everyday for dignity, solidarity, and justice.
Please note: This excerpt features temporary color and sound.
Janazah
Director Aaron Brokenbough / 2025 / US / English open captions in English / 3 min
A quiet meditation on prayer, death, and the tender, evolving bond between mother and son, the film explores grief and spiritual intimacy with lyrical restraint.
Queen Mother: Falaka Fattah and the House of Umoja
Director Jos Duncan Asé; Producers Jos Duncan-Asé and Jason Pollard / Excerpt: 12 min
When gang violence tore through Philadelphia, one mother opened her home—and her heart—to help build a movement for peace. Now at 93, she’s calling a new generation to remember the power of unity, love, and community healing. Queen Mother is a work in progress documentary film by Jos Duncan-Ase, co-produced and edited by Jason Pollard. To support the completion of this project visit: houseofumojafilm.com
The Cure for Depression
Director Elijah Crawford / 2024 / US / English open captions in English / Execerpt: 12 min
The Cure For Depression is an absurdist dark comedy following the journey of Edie, a young woman grappling with depression in a society consumed by toxic positivity. Her quest to cure her mental illness leads her to stumble upon a self-help cassette tape at her birthday party. As she blindly follows the tape's instructions, Edie finds the further she assimilates into societal expectations, the further she descends into madness.
SOFT In Progress
Director Sarah Krusen / 2025 / US / English / Excerpt: 1 min 30 sec
SOFT is a meditation on rest and liberation for Black women. Through intimate interviews, poetic imagery, archival footage, and interpretive movement, the film explores how the historical treatment of Black women, rooted in labor, control, and disposability, has shaped present-day exhaustion. SOFT uses this lineage as a launching point to examine rest as a radical act of resistance, healing, and reclamation. Blending science, spirit, and intergenerational insight, the film makes a compelling case for why rest is essential, not just for everyone, but especially for Black women.
Please note: The teaser is a rough cut with partial color and sound design. The full film is expected to complete in 2026.
Cempōhualli Xiuhtonalli Macehualiztli, 20 years of Aztec Dance in Philadelphia Work in Progress
Director Brujo de la Mancha / 2005 - Present / US / Spanish with open captions in English / Execerpt: 2 min 5 sec
OYC is the first Danza Aztec troupe in Philadelphia, and through our work and training, several others have formed groups in the area. Over the years, we sponsored master dancers, musicians, and instrument and regalia makers and brought them to Philadelphia for events and workshops. Danza Azteca is a ceremonial practice that is central to Mexica culture and was called "In Cuicatl In Xochitl" (the Song and the Flower), because it was a form of offering that allowed contact with the deities that manifested in nature. The ritual dance, called Mitotiliztli, contains ancestral scientific and spiritual knowledge. And the popular dance was called Macehualiztli. Danza encompasses our worldview and cosmology.
Bumpa In Progress
Director Kayla Naomi Watkins / 2022 - 2025 / US / English / 30 min
This documentary will explore the Afro-Caribbean dance, ‘whining’ alongside the practice of twerking to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and gendered criticism of sexual expression within the Black diaspora. The film centers the testimony of burlesque, hip hop, and Caribbean dancers as they reflect on their experiences with these ancient dances.
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COVID SAFETY
This event is indoors. Masks are required when not eating or drinking. We will have free masks available at check-in. If you are feeling sick, we kindly request that you stay home.
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PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO
Photographs and/or video will be taken at this event. By attending this event, you consent to your image/likeness, voice, and/or name being used in photographs and/or film, and any reproductions or adaptations thereafter, by Independence Public Media Foundation to use in any and all print and digital media in perpetuity. If you do not wish to be photographed and/or filmed, reach out to Enni Aigbomian, Communications and Events Manager, at enni@independencemedia.org.
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ABOUT INDEPENDENCE PUBLIC MEDIA FOUNDATION:
Mission / Vision:
The Independence Public Media Foundation funds and supports creative, community-centered media and media making across Greater Philadelphia. The Foundation’s goals reflect an expansive definition of media, including journalism, digital equity, and creative expression, as a pathway for building power with communities. Through grant-making and other programs, IPMF supports building and strengthening networks of people who are creating and sharing information, ideas, and stories for justice and change.
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cinéSPEAK @ Calvary
801 S. 48th Street
September 25, 2025, 6:30 - 9:00 PM EDT